KOCHI: Exactly a week after the inauguration of the terminal, cargo from the first container vessel was handled at the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), Vallarpadam.
Though the container vessel OEL Dubai had reached Kochi the day before the commissioning of the ICTT, it had to wait at the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal since the workers were on strike. The vessel, has been conducting feeder service between Kochi and Colombo. Over 500 containers were unloaded while 250 were loaded. Though the vessel berthed at Vallarpadam on Thursday night, unloading work began after 12 midnight .
As the workers of the United Steamer Agents Pool were on strike, the handling work was carried out by the labourers deployed by the agencies which have been awarded the work on contract-basis, K K Krishnadas, CEO, DPWorld Cochin, said.
Now that the Division Bench of the High Court has stayed a Single Judge’s order that the RGCT should be operated for the next three months, the vessels which were waiting in the outer channel can move to the ICTT. The vessels, carrying both coastal and export cargo were waiting in the outer channel due to the uncertainty regarding where they were to be berthed. The inordinate delay in solving the issue had created serious concern among the business community also.
Meanwhile, the Trade Union Coordination Committee which launched the strike demanding retention of the operation of the RGCT, said it would go on with the agitation. “The stay order on the Single Judge’s order is unfortunate,” Charles George, convener of the coordination committee, said.